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| Thursday, 29 July 2010 21:34 |
Europa League: Maritimo hammer 10-man BangorMaritimo 8-2 Bangor City  Five goals in the last fifteen minutes from Maritimo saw the Portuguese side record a convincing 8-2 victory over Welsh outfit Bangor City at the Estadio da Madeira in Funchal this evening.
Braces for Brazilians Tcho and Danilo Dias, as well as Baba, were followed by additional strikes from substitutes Kanu and Fidelis as Mitchell van der Gaag's side all but secured their passage through to the next round. Maritimo, who fielded just one Portuguese in their starting line-up, scored four times in a five-minute spell between 75-80 minutes, in a game which had to wait 33 minutes for its first goal. The visitors, meanwhile, played the second half with ten men following the sending off of Brewerton on the stroke of half time.
Marcelo; Alonso, Robson, Ricardo Esteves e João Guilherme; Marquinho (Marquinho, 64), Roberto Sousa e Tchô (Fidélis, 82); Babá Diawara, Abdelmalek Cherrad (Rafael Miranda, 70) & Danilo. |
We all get it.
We would all like to see teams losde with Portuguese talent.
The fact is that teams like Maritimo, have to buy cheap and sell higher, in order to survive.
I think that we seem to forget that Portugal only has 10 million people. We have so many players playing abroad, and that's a good thing. They bring good recognition to the country and league. Liga ZON Sagres is a feeder league, whether we like it or not. Yes, maybe more Portuguese youngsters need to be nurtured, but teams need to survive.
Benfica, for example, needs the foreign talent in order to compete at all levels. That's not a cop-out, it's fact. They can't afford to pay the high wages that the good and great Portuguese players are comanding abroad. As a matter of fact, Benfica will have to sell after this season, if not a couple of more sells this season.
Lets be happy that another Portuguese team could make some noise in European play. The league needs it.
Ultimately this will continue to affect out national squad, which is why the Portuguese Football Association should look into starting a plan to limit the number of non Portuguese players allowed in each team/staring 11.
That aside, it was a great result for Maritimo who seem to be playing some nice football although the teams they've played have been of a lower caliber. However, you can only beat what's in front of you and they've done that well.
All in all the Portuguese teams seem to be playing with confidence, which makes for an exciting season ahead and I predict one of the closes leagues for years.... I can't wait for the start of the season!
With such a respected former defender like Mitchell in charge you'd think they would be better organised defensively.
They will need to improve that aspect if they are going to make the group stage but good luck to them.